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The fact that the Pauli matrices, along with the identity matrix I, form an orthogonal basis for the Hilbert space of all 2 × 2 complex matrices , over , means that we can express any 2 × 2 complex matrix M as = + where c is a complex number, and a is a 3-component, complex vector.
Given a unit vector in 3 dimensions, for example (a, b, c), one takes a dot product with the Pauli spin matrices to obtain a spin matrix for spin in the direction of the unit vector. The eigenvectors of that spin matrix are the spinors for spin-1/2 oriented in the direction given by the vector. Example: u = (0.8, -0.6, 0) is a unit vector ...
In 1927, Pauli formalized the theory of spin using the theory of quantum mechanics invented by Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg. He pioneered the use of Pauli matrices as a representation of the spin operators and introduced a two-component spinor wave-function. Pauli's theory of spin was non-relativistic.
The traditional Pauli matrices are the matrix representation of the () Lie algebra generators , , and in the 2-dimensional irreducible representation of SU(2), corresponding to a spin-1/2 particle. These generate the Lie group SU(2) .
The defining property for the gamma matrices to generate a Clifford algebra is the anticommutation relation {,} = + = ,where the curly brackets {,} represent the anticommutator, is the Minkowski metric with signature (+ − − −), and is the 4 × 4 identity matrix.
Pauli introduced the 2×2 Pauli matrices as a basis of spin operators, thus solving the nonrelativistic theory of spin. This work, including the Pauli equation , is sometimes said to have influenced Paul Dirac in his creation of the Dirac equation for the relativistic electron, though Dirac said that he invented these same matrices himself ...
In mathematics, anticommutativity is a specific property of some non-commutative mathematical operations.Swapping the position of two arguments of an antisymmetric operation yields a result which is the inverse of the result with unswapped arguments.
In three Euclidean dimensions, for instance, the Pauli spin matrices are a set of gamma matrices, [i] and the two-component complex column vectors on which these matrices act are spinors. However, the particular matrix representation of the Clifford algebra, hence what precisely constitutes a "column vector" (or spinor), involves the choice of ...